When John McCain led the filibuster of the Defense Appropriations Act yesterday, he blocked far more than the DREAM Act and repeal of DADT. Here are just a few of the other blocked provisions, courtesy of Mother Jones.

• No permanent military bases in Afghanistan.
• Report identifying hybrid or electric propulsion systems and other fuel-saving technologies for incorporation into tactical motor vehicles.
• Protection of child custody arrangements for parents who are members of the Armed Forces deployed in support of a contingency operation.
• Improvements to Department of Defense domestic violence programs.
• Department of Defense recognition of spouses of members of the Armed Forces.
• Department of Defense recognition of children of members of the Armed Forces.
• Enhancements to the Troops-to-Teachers Program.
• Fiscal year 2011 increase in military basic pay.
• Improving aural protection for members of the Armed Forces.
• Comprehensive policy on neurocognitive assessment by the military health care system.
• Authority to make excess nonlethal supplies available for domestic emergency assistance.

And those were just some of the progressive provisions. On the conservative side, there are these, and more:

• Prohibition on the use of funds for the transfer or release of individuals detained at United States Naval Station, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
• Prohibition on the use of funds to modify or construct facilities in the United States to house detainees transferred from United States Naval Station, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
• Prohibition on use of funds to give Miranda warnings to Al Qaeda terrorists.

What did they gain with their filibuster? Traction with so-called values voters? They didn't have any problem with them anyway. Denying the Democrats a victory over a 17-year old self-inflicted wound? Making a stand against children of immigrants? What big, brave people they are. Do they seriously think there are no gay Republicans? As one of my Twitter friends remarked earlier, if Ken Mehlman couldn't convince them, no one could.

This was a mean-spirited, cut-off-your-nose-to-spite-your-face exercise in homophobic politics and it's ugly, especially with John McCain leading the charge. The same John McCain, by the way, who said all he needed was for the leadership of the military to come and say the policy should change. And so, they did. Even after testimony from the joint chiefs of staff, McCain didn't adhere to his own conditions for cynical, self-serving political reasons.

I have a question for Senator McCain. Here it is:

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Well, Senator McCain? Which one is it?

When you die for your country, the grave marker doesn't identify you as gay or straight. Your blood is as red as the guy next to you with the wife and three kids. You deserve to be treated equally. That's all.

Adama Bah - Outrage in New York

via All Spin Zone

...It began with two 16-year-old immigrant girls arrested at dawn, detained far from home, and, in a chilling government assertion, called would-be suicide bombers who posed “an imminent threat to the security of the United States.”

But now, after holding the girls for six weeks in a Pennsylvania detention center, the government has quietly released one of the girls and is allowing the other to leave the country with her family...

My daughter turns 18 on Monday. As a parent, I inherently know how it would have affected her (and me) for life to have something similar happen to her at 16. Six weeks in detention, five minutes each week speaking with her mother on the phone, the rest in the hands of the government that brought you Abu Ghraib.

Yes, this is outrageous beyond words - but it begs the question - how many more 16 year old girls are being currently held on U.S. soil under similar circumstances?

Download | play Download | play (h/t BillW)

Stephen Colbert skewers the Terror Watchlist by speaking to Hasan Elahi, who remains on the Watchlist despite being cleared of all charges and who has resorted to an innovative way to respond to those federal watchdogs.

My favorite terrorist is Hasan Elahi. Just saying his name makes my heart go up one Terror Alert level. Why Elahi? Well, to begin with, he’s innocent. A quality so rare in someone so guilty. You see, in 2002, Elahi was detained by the FBI on suspicion of hoarding explosives in a Florida storage unit. Turns out, he didn’t have any explosives. In fact, he was the only person in Florida without gunpowder. But the FBI refused to give Elahi a written letter clearing him of suspicion because he refused to change his name, religion and skin color. Instead, they just asked him to “check in” with them periodically. And here’s where I really like this guy: for the last six years, Elahi has taken the burden off government surveillance by surveilling himself. Everyday, Elahi takes hundreds of photos of his whereabouts and sends them to the FBI. Pictures of the airports he travels through, the bathrooms he visits, even the meals he eats. With these pictures, he’s ensuring that he’ll never be arrested on suspicion of terror, though by judging by some of the meals he’s eating, Gitmo might be an improvement.

Yes, AP is reporting that A U.N. envoy's session Sunday with detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was "highly orchestrated." MSM is missing an important point and a big part of the UN visit: confirmation that she's alive and was not removed from the house where she has been under arrest.

BBC has more: Mr Gambari is believed to be the first foreigner to meet Ms Suu Kyi for 10 months.

Keeping a good thought here for Aung San Suu Kyi and for Mr. Gambari's efforts.

Words of Power:

Stepping out of her home in tears, Myanmar's democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi greeted Buddhist monks Saturday in a landmark moment for a swelling protest movement against the military junta. Armed guards usually block the road leading to the rambling lakeside house, but in an unprecedented move, they allowed about 1,000 monks and an equal number of their supporters to walk past the place where she has been detained for 12 of the past 18 years. As the rain poured down, Aung San Suu Kyi walked out with two other women and cried as she waved to the monks, witnesses said. They stopped outside her home for about 15 minutes and chanted a Buddhist prayer: "May we be completely free from all danger, may we be completely free from all grief, may we be completely free from poverty, may we have peace in heart and mind." Some of their supporters broke into tears as they joined in with their own refrain, chanting: "Long life and health for Aung San Suu Kyi, may she have freedom soon." There was no interruption from about 20 uniformed security police, who had opened the roadblock. After the monks left the road was again closed. Read more...

How much airplay is this getting in American press? I talked about this case with a conservative friend of mine who completely denied it. When I emailed this story to him, he was literally shocked to think that the US is torturing people who are NOT terrorists. I truly believe that I'm starting to get him to stop his unconditional support for Bush and his war. Why it's not okay to torture terrorists either will be our next discussion. But it made me wonder how many of the 29%ers just don't have any clue what's being done in their name.

BBC:

A Lebanese-born German, who accuses the CIA of having kidnapped and tortured him, says he is determined to get an apology from the US authorities.

Khaled al-Masri alleges that he was seized in Macedonia, flown to a secret jail in Afghanistan and tortured there.

"I'll pursue the case until the Americans admit what they did to me, give an explanation and make an apology," he told the BBC News website.

Munich prosecutors have ordered the arrest of 13 suspected CIA agents.

Mr Masri says he was abducted at the end of 2003 and detained for five months before being released in Albania after the Americans realised they had got the wrong man.

UPDATE: David sent in this clip from CNN discussing the arrest orders

I meant to post about this story sooner, but there was a power outage in my neighborhood most of the weekend. This story is unbelievable: I know, I say that a lot.

Detainee 200343 was among thousands of people who have been held and released by the American military in Iraq, and his account of his ordeal has provided one of the few detailed views of the Pentagon’s detention operations since the abuse scandals at Abu Ghraib. Yet in many respects his case is unusual.

The detainee was Donald Vance, a 29-year-old Navy veteran from Chicago who went to Iraq as a security contractor. He wound up as a whistle-blower, passing information to the F.B.I. about suspicious activities at the Iraqi security firm where he worked, including what he said was possible illegal weapons trading.

But when American soldiers raided the company at his urging, Mr. Vance and another American who worked there were detained as suspects by the military, which was unaware that Mr. Vance was an informer, according to officials and military documents.

At Camp Cropper, he took notes on his imprisonment and smuggled them out in a Bible...read on

Forbes:

The federal government has agreed to pay an Oregon lawyer $2 million to settle part of a lawsuit he filed after the FBI misidentified a fingerprint and wrongly arrested him in the 2004 Madrid terrorist bombings.

"The pain and torture and humiliation that this (case) has caused my family is hard to put into words," Brandon Mayfield said after the settlement was announced Wednesday.

Mayfield was arrested in May 2004 on the basis of a fingerprint found on a bag of detonators in Madrid that was mistakenly matched to him after the March 11, 2004, train bombings that killed 191 people and wounded more than 1,500. Mayfield was jailed on a material witness warrant but was released after the FBI acknowledged the fingerprint was not his.

Mayfield, who was detained for two weeks, and his wife, Mona, maintained that he was arrested because of his Muslim faith.

"We are Muslims. We are American. We are patriotic," Mona Mayfield said. "We are unhappy with the current administration stripping away our rights." Read on...

Nicole linked this story the other day on the AP photographer--Bilal Hussein, who is still being detained in Iraq. Will Bunch has the goods on the Cult of Bush.

I don't know whether an Iraqi photojournalist named Bilal Hussein [..]-- a member of the Associated Press team that won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for its breathtaking pictures of the fighting there -- has any connection to the anti-U.S. insurgency there.

Neither does Powerline, Michelle Malkin, or any of the other right-wing bloggers so eager to convict Hussein, who has been held in captivity by the U.S. military for five months now without any charges lodged against him.

But the lack of any criminal charges -- let alone much information about what Bilal Hussein did to merit five months behind bars -- hasn't stopped these wingers from convicting him, and the Associated Press along with it, of being a terrorist....read on

Mike's Blog Round Up

Consortium News: Republicans are furious that some Democrats threatened to filibuster Samuel Alito's nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court. But 15 years ago, the Republicans mounted a crucial filibuster of their own to block an investigation that might have destroyed the legacy of the Reagan-Bush era. There's actual history, and then there's the GOP version.

Deep Thought: Interpreting the Hamas victory--and where from here?

The Bushistas seem to be going to a helluva lot of trouble to scrub the planet of photos G-Dub claims are "not relevant." Most Americans disagree.

Zaphod's Heads: Taking another page from the Saddam playbook, the US army has detained the wives of suspected insurgents in order to force them to surrender to authorities...

Facing South: The right-wing fraud about race and Katrinatrouble to scrub the planet of photos G-Dub claims are "not relevant." Most Americans disagree.

Zaphod's Heads: Taking another page from the Saddam playbook, the US army has detained the wives of suspected insurgents in order to force them to surrender to authorities...

Facing South: The right-wing fraud about race and Katrina

Pensito Review: Cowardly Bush terrified of octogenerian reporter.

Pensito Review: Cowardly Bush terrified of octogenerian reporter.